Caps' Michal Kempny has been hit hard in the face by objects, 'three times, four times ... I don't know'

Thanks to some extraordinarily bad luck this season, Michal Kempny is drawing some odd looks in the produce aisle of his local grocery store.

“Sometimes you go to Whole Foods and people are looking at you like you’re an idiot or something,” Kempny said with a laugh. “They don’t know. It’s part of hockey.”

The part of hockey the Capitals’ defenseman is referring to is how his face has suddenly become a road map of pain. Currently sporting a red mark under his right eye and another across the bridge of his nose, Kempny has no idea why his face has become a magnet for pucks, sticks and helmets this season. He has been left bleeding on the Capitals bench so many times he has lost count. And don’t even ask how many stitches he’s taken, he has no idea.

“My face has been through a lot of trouble,” Kempny said. “I’ve been hit three times, four times … I don’t know. It’s part of hockey and things like that happen. I can’t do anything with it. It’s probably bad luck.”

It’s the kind of luck that has led to frantic text messages from his mother, Ladislava, from the Czech Republic.

The latest came following Sunday night’s game against the Rangers, when Kempny was left bloodied after an open-ice collision with Lias Andersson.

michal kempny TOO HANDSOME pic.twitter.com/jpx2Up35Ln

— zee (@redshiftvoid) March 3, 2019

“My mom was a little bit freaking out,” Kempny said. “She’s always like that. I just texted her after the game that I’m OK and it’s all good. She’s worried every time if something happens. She’s my mom.”

It has been a potpourri of pain for Kempny, who suffered damage in November when he was inadvertently head-butted in the face by teammate Travis Boyd during a goal celebration.

Last month, the Capitals took the ice for pregame warm-ups wearing camouflaged hats and sweaters on Military Appreciation Night and, you guessed it, Kempny was hit by some friendly fire, taking a puck to his right cheek.

The culprits appeared to be teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky.

“They were passing between each other; it took a bounce,” Kempny said with a shrug.

All of the face shots have taken their toll on Kempny’s nose, though he doesn’t believe it has been broken.

“Every contact with my nose makes some troubles — it’s been a lot,” Kempny said. “I don’t think there’s a reason. Bad spots at bad times, something like that.”

Other than the blows to his face, there haven’t been many times this season when Kempny has been in the wrong spot at the wrong time. One year after being acquired in a trade with the Blackhawks that revitalized his career and put the final piece of the puzzle in the Capitals’ run to their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history, Kempny has become one of the team’s most consistent defensemen.

“I think I’m a better hockey player for sure than I was last season — I believe in that,” Kempny, 28, said. “I just try to build my game up every game, every practice, every day and be better and better.

“Last year, I got traded and I played (22) games in the regular season and then had a long grind in the playoffs so this season is a little bit different for me. It will be a different situation than it was in Chicago when I played maybe 50 games every season. This is my first season when I’ve played every game so I’ve had to learn how to play consistently.”

Kempny leads the Capitals and ranks 15th in the NHL with a plus-23 plus-minus rating. Among teammates who have skated more than 500 minutes this season, he ranks fourth with an even-strength Corsi For Percentage of 50.15. Kempny also has a career-high six goals (three of them game-winners) and 15 assists.

“The numbers kind of speak for themselves,” coach Todd Reirden said of Kempny. “He’s so much more comfortable now. It’s been a pretty amazing year for him. We’ve gone through that a couple of times when he’s had some positives and negatives and at different points of the season we’ll get together and meet again and be like, ‘can you believe all of this happened in a year?’ He’s hard on himself and wants to continue to improve and feels like he can improve.

“To see his game grow, it’s a really amazing story obviously for our organization and how we were able to find that type of player and bring him in. Just an amazing story for hockey players that sometimes get pushed to the side. Sometimes you do have a second chance and if you take advantage of it some pretty awesome things can happen.”

Kempny is determined to continue the career arc that led to him hoisting the Stanley Cup last June, and has helped the Capitals win five consecutive games as they ramp up for another postseason run this season.

“I feel like I still have some room to be better,” Kempny said. “Hopefully, I can prove it. My style of hockey is about hard work so I’m going to stick with it and hopefully it’s going to get me to a next level.”

(Top photo of Michal Kempny: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)